Zombie Prime Minister Theresa May lives to fight another day
Robert Shrimsley/Channel NewsAsia
British Prime Minister Theresa May is in charge but not any better off, says the Financial Times’ Robert Shrimsley.
Now what? That was the question Conservative MPs were left asking after the leadership challenge failed to deliver a knockout blow, leaving Theresa May still in charge but not really any better off.
She survives, but it is a paltry respite. There is no reason to think she is now better placed to overcome the divisions in her party.
A little over a third of her MPs declared that they had no confidence in her and show no signs of being ready to back down in their opposition to her.
Furthermore even this unconvincing victory came at the cost of a fairly clear promise that she will not be contesting the next election. This must be the first time a premier has won a leadership challenge by promising to go. She has paid a very high price for a pretty poor win.
ZOMBIE PRIME MINISTER
It confirms the impression of a zombie prime minister. She will carry through Brexit, attempt to freshen up the cabinet with new faces about to take forward the Tory agenda and then step aside.
At one level this was no more than a recognition of reality; there is no appetite among her MPs for her to stay in office long after Brexit. But it was also an indication of the degree of fear among her aides that she felt forced to offer this commitment.The EU leaders she will meet in Brussels on Thursday will now have the reassurance that she is not about to be ousted before the Brexit date but she will be unable to project the new authority of someone now able to secure her deal.
WINNING WILL BE A STRETCH
Mrs May also promised to restore relations with the Democratic Unionists, on whose support her government relies for its majority. Theoretically the DUP could have finished her off by threatening to withdraw their agreement should she win. Instead, its leaders played nice.Nonetheless, winning them round is also going to be a stretch. Mrs May acknowledged to her MPs that “warm words” were not enough to ease their fears on the Irish backstop to the withdrawal agreement and that she was going to battle for a watertight legal commitment that the UK could not be held inside its terms indefinitely.That was just enough to save her on Wednesday. Delivering on it is a whole other matter.
SOME HELP PLEASE, EU
Without meaningful assistance from the EU — perhaps in the form of a codicil with at least some legal force — she will find herself still trying to sell the same deal to the same recalcitrants. We now know that at least 117 Tory MPs are not interested in coming to heel.
The ballot shows the limit of support for a no-deal Brexit but as long as Mrs May refuses to countenance any other deal or a “People’s Vote” it remains an option. If remainers and soft-Brexiters are to force a change of direction, parliament is going to have to wrest control of the process from her.It is not clear what has been achieved by the exercise. Mrs May’s remains, badly wounded but still in office. Her rebels can vote down her deal but cannot now remove her.Only a meaningful concession in Brussels will break the logjam for her.
Otherwise, to deploy her own phrase, nothing has changed.